The removal of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants and the subsequent transport of the spent fuel to an away-from-reactor (AFR) facility for storage or for disposal is a consideration within the nuclear fuel cycle in the United States. As nuclear power plants reach maximum spent fuel pool capacity, the nuclear power plants are off-loading the longer-cooled fuel into storage. Existing storage campaigns could soon deplete the longer-cooled fuel and result in an ever-increasing supply of short cool-time fuel and high heat loads. Development of large, high-heat capacity storage and transport casks could support this future need of the nuclear industry.
Two major issues, among others, drive the desire for a more thermally efficient packaging. First, a more thermally efficient package holds more fuel assemblies, e.g., the package has higher capacity. This feature makes both storage and transport packages very attractive. Reduction of materials, fabrication, operations, project oversight and/or storage area directly reduces the cost per fuel assembly of both fuel storage and transport. Secondly, current spent fuel pool inventories are trending toward short cool-time fuel. As the inventory of cooler fuel is reduced, the per-fuel-assembly thermal load could steadily increase. A high thermal capacity design could address the increasing heat loads for this short cool-time fuel inventory, facilitating dry spent fuel storage.
A high thermal capacity cask might also address the needs of nuclear power plants to ship very hot fuel directly to a repository or AFR storage. This high thermal capacity cask could utilize an approach for a more efficient, more economical cooling configuration.
Thus, a special need exists in the industry to address the evolving conditions of spent fuel storage and transport.